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Honey Bee Nucs ready 3/26/16

BEES FOR SALE

Urban Bee Company is offering a limited number of 5-frame nucleus colonies for sale. The bees are scheduled to be ready for pick up at our Capitol Hill location in Seattle on Saturday March 26.

UPDATE 3/25: Our nucs described below are SOLD OUT. If you want to be on the WAIT LIST, please inquire in case our inventory changes, and in case we have spring splits available in the coming weeks.

Order now by contacting us with your request. Price is $200 plus tax, payable in advance.

ABOUT THESE NUCLEUS COLONIES

These bees started in the almond orchards in California, then will move to the fruit orchards in eastern Washington. They are a hybrid Carniolan/Italian breed that does well in the Pacific Northwest. Each nuc is assembled in Eastern Washington from the parent colonies the week of delivery and includes a field-bred queen.

Each colony comes in a waxed cardboard box and contains four wooden frames of bees and brood, and one more frame with bees and honey. The queen is guaranteed to be a laying queen in the colony or we will replace it.

WHY THESE NUCS?

The best way to increase colonies is by raising your own nucs or by picking up swarms starting in April and May. Raising your own might not be possible, however, and relying on swarms is by nature unpredictable. Supply of whole colonies for sale can be limited and in any case, expensive.

Over the years we have tested bees from many sources and configurations, from packages to nucs from different suppliers. These are the best alternative we can find from the commercial operations, and we have used them successfully in our own operation. We pick them up ourselves; rather than a 14+ hour drive from California, they are only in transport a few hours before you can pick them up.

Simply put, these nucs are high-quality.

EARLY BEES: TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Last year the main nectar flow around Seattle–from blackberry–started the first week of May and was mostly wrapped up in a month.

We use these nucs in our own operation.

Worker bees take 21 days to gestate, and two more weeks before they become foragers. If you want to put yourself in the position to collect surplus honey this year, you need to have enough bees to collect the main nectar flow, which means if your colonies are not building population in early April, you are looking at numerous issues before you have even started.

Using the nectar flow itself to build up a colony means you will have a lot of hungry bees right when the summer dearth hits. Droughts the past couple years have only exacerbated this problem of “phenological mismatch.” One solution will be to rely on sugar-water and pollen-substitute feeding, which creates its own problems of dietary diversity, and adds cost.

If you are looking to start a colony this year, these bees offer you the best chance of building population, catching the nectar flow, harvesting some honey, and offering you different overwintering options for next year.

A TRUSTED SOURCE

Since 2009, Urban Bee Company has been raising healthy bees and growing resilient communities in the Pacific Northwest. An exclusive supplier of honey to Theo Chocolates, we are also partner to community farms at the Beacon Food Forest, Alleycat Acres, Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands, Marra Farm, and others.

We support habitat restoration projects at Sea-Tac airport, operate a bicycle-delivery honey CSA, and provide free classes to youth on bees (of all kinds) and the ecosystem. Our efforts aim to build “community through the hive.”